Penney could make more changes for decider

6:03am Wednesday 14th May 2008

Darlington manager Dave Penney admits he had to make some tough choices when selecting the side that triumphed at home to Rochdale at the weekend, and there will be at least one more change for the second leg this Saturday.

Having started five of the previous seven games, Clark Keltie was a surprise omission from the side that won at Peterborough United seven days previously.

He was axed in one of four changes with Craig Nelthorpe, who wasn't even on the bench, Ian Miller and Neil Wainwright also making way, though the latter two came on as substitutes and combined to give Darlington a first leg lead.

Penney explained: "We played three in midfield at Peterborough but we wanted to play 4-4-2 on Saturday so somebody had to be left out and it was Kelts, but he was on the bench if we needed him.

"He played well at Peterborough and young Craig Nelthorpe played very well down there too, but we had to make some big decisions to try and win Saturday's game.

"But I thought our midfield two were excellent because they stopped David Perkins and Gary Jones playing and those two are a real threat, plus Jason (Kennedy) got a goal too.

"They all worked their socks off and that kind of performance is more like us."

The manager added: "There'll have been some disappointed people who weren't in the team or on the bench last Saturday.

"Because of the injuries we haven't been in that position for a long time. But we'll go with another team and different personnel to try and win the next game at Rochdale."

Penney's personnel changes last Saturday would have totaled five had goalkeeper David Stockdale not been able to take his place due to an injury sustained at Peterborough.

He suffered a heavily bruised foot at London Road and was replaced by understudy, Przemyslaw Kazimierczak.

Stockdale declared himself available, but only after receiving pain relieving injections.

"He was very close to not playing," admitted Penney. "He hadn't trained all week.

"He had an injection at 3pm, went out on to the pitch and kicked a ball and he was fine so he had another one before he played and then another one at half-time.

"You could see by his kicking he wasn't at his best and I could see he was wincing a bit.

"He's going to have a week now between games to let it settle a little bit but it was sore after Saturday."

Quakers have been given 2,000 tickets for Saturday's second leg (12.00 kick-off) and around 800 remain, which go on general sale today from 9am at the Darlington Arena.